Spirit jumps into airline brawl with $9 offering -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Spirit jumps into airline brawl with $9 offering
Spirit Airlines By Jaclyn Giovis

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

August 13, 2009
Spirit Airlines jumped into South Florida's airline brawl Wednesday afternoon with a $9 each-way fare sale on its nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.
The sale ends Thursday just before midnight and is only applicable to members of Spirit's $9 fare club on select travel dates. The annual cost for the company's fare club is $39.95. Spirit currently offers one daily nonstop flight between the two cities.
The Miramar-based carrier's offer comes on the heels of new competitor Virgin America's announcement Tuesday that it will start offering nonstop service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport to L.A. and San Francisco Nov. 18.
Also on Tuesday, JetBlue Airways said it will match Virgin's San Francisco service.
Spirit acknowledged the growing competition for South Florida travelers in a new slogan promoting the offer: "We're No Virgin — We've Been Cheap and Easy for Years."
Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson said the airline welcomes its new rival and is "confident that no one can match our low cost structure."
Spirit is the second-largest operator at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Southwest Airlines is the airport's top carrier, with only slightly more passengers.

Jaclyn Giovis can be reached at [email protected]
or 954-356-4668.

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